Das Finanzamt

July 9, 2008 By Leave a Comment

The Finanzamt is the German tax office.

Normally, you only contact with the Finanzamt will be your annual tax return – the Einkommenssteuererklärung.

However, if you are self-employed then you will come into close contact with it as you are involved in Umsatzsteuer (VAT) for your business and taxes such as Lohnsteuer for your employees.

The Finanzamt also collects Church Tax on behalf of the churches and if you buy a flat or a house in Germany then they will also send you a bill for Grunderwerbssteuer (land purchase tax).

To hear a simple explanation and a short discussion in German, listen to the podcast:

(Press the “play” button to listen to the podcast)

Download a transcript

Download the MP3 file | Subscribe to the podcast

Filed Under: German Words Explained, Podcasts, Tax Tagged With: , , ,

Low-energy housing – a thing of the past?

July 7, 2008 By 1 Comment

I was thinking the other day about how many electrical appliances run, even when they are not “directly” in use.
I don’t mean simple things like a television on standby, but things that in a sense need power, such as a video recorder or radio-alarm clock.
However much I attempt to reduce my power consumption (or “carbon footprint”), eg. by using bio-fuels or switching to renewable power sources, things still run on electricity.
Take the humble telephone.  In the old days they used power from the phone line.  These days I use a telephone exchange and cordless phones – all of which require power to run that is not supplied down the phone line.  And I can’t turn them off, in case someone rings!
Thinking back to my childhood in the 1970s, I worked out that our house used almost no energy at night whatsoever.  There was no video recorder waiting to record, no answerphone waiting for a call.  Heating was provided for by a coal-burning boiler, which went out at night and had to be re-lit in the morning.  My alarm clock had to be wound up before I went to sleep!
I am pretty sure that the only thing in the house consuming any power at night was the fridge!
Why can things not be so simple today?  Our modern society is so reliant on electricity, that instead of finding ways to consume less, we seem to be looking for better ways of producing it.
How about looking into ways of saving it instead?

Filed Under: Cymeradwyo, Environment Tagged With: , , , , ,

Queueing and Blogging

July 7, 2008 By Leave a Comment

I went to the DIY supermarket at the weekend to buy a set of metal shelves for our cellar.  The shelves, along with their metal supports, were packaged into polythene as a set.  The whole thing was quite a weight to carry, so I made a direct line for the checkout…

Now normally this would not be a problem.  I avoid people that might be in my way, and those that see me coming with such a heavy item would probably make way for me anyway.  But not this week.  Just as I was reached the checkout a young lady stepped out in front of me… and stopped!  Although she didn’t want to go actually to the checkout, she stood in front of it and blocked my way.

I gave here a look that said “this is heavy”, to which she looked at what I was carrying and said “you could put it down!”, and then continued to hold a conversation with someone else.

I was so speechless, that I didn’t even think to reply with “you could get out of my way” or something similar.  I was just amazed at how blunt she was.

Which leads me nicely on to write about a new site where my wife started blogging today.  On AllThingsBritish.net she is doing the exact opposite of what I blog about here – namely writing about British topics in German.  Today, by co-incidence, she has written about how difficult it is in some British shops to know which way to join a queue.

Later this week she will also start blogging about words that have, at some time or other, caused us confusion or at least led to a topical discussion on EnglishWordsExplained.

So if you can understand German then please take a look at the new sites and give her some feedback!

Filed Under: General, Shops Tagged With: , ,

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